Day 8 New Orleans

Dave heads to the Starbucks that is located in our hotel for a cup of decaf and to purchase a New Orleans Starbucks mug to add to our growing collection :) I just make a cup of Starbucks coffee that is provided in the room in one of those little coffee makers.  Then we head off to walk to Cafe Du Monde for beignets!  It is located right across from Jackson Square in the lower part of the French Quarter so once again it is a good walk.  We could hop on a street car to get there but we don't want to wait for one and there is just so much to see along the way that we would rather walk anyway.
The line is not too bad at Cafe Du Monde and it moves fast.  When you are the next in line you just watch for a table to open up then go sit down, the servers eventually clear it and take your order.






Below is a tray of beignets ready for a server to take out.



Before we headed out we asked at the hotel's front desk if we could get a late check out since our flight is not until 7:00 PM, they are letting us have our room until 2:00 so we decide we better just wander around the area here before we head back to our hotel.  We walked around the French Market.




Then wander around the neighborhoods looking at the interesting architecture.







Loved the skeleton with mardi gras bead handing from it in the entry way of this house:


We do a little shopping for some food items to take home and I decide I have to try a Hurricane to go.  A Hurricane is a popular drink in New Orleans, basically a rum punch.  I don't think I have ever had one, it is still before noon but I decide it is okay because it has fruit juice in it! Kitty and Debbie you both would love this drink :)

Then a stop at Central Grocery to pick up a 1/2 of a muffuletta sandwich for lunch to take back to the hotel and eat, it is still too early for lunch. It was just as good if not better than I remembered it. The  photo of the sign was taken the first night we were here before the cruise.






We check out of our room and have a couple of hours to kill before we catch a cab to the airport.  We walk down Poydras Avenue to the River Walk shops and wandered through the mall along the waterfront.  Since we each only ate 1/4 of a sandwich (it is a big sandwich so 1/4 is adequate) we started feeling hungry so we stopped at Mothers for one last time and split a slice of pecan pie and got a huge oatmeal cookie to go for the flight home.  Headed back to the hotel and took a 36.00 dollar cab ride to the airport.  This is the published fare, expensive but it is a ways to the airport.
Who should we see sitting at a table in the food court by our gate but the same group of 4 people from our ship who were always playing Hand and Foot and guess what they were doing....playing Hand and Foot!  We said hi and asked them if they have ever stopped playing! They are on their way home to Iowa, bet they play all the way home on the plane somehow, pretty sure they will find a way!
Flights were all on time and actually arrived home 1 hour early due to a strong tail wind.
It was a great trip with lots of variety. So glad we cruised out of New Orleans, it gave us a new experience to cruise the Mississippi and we have been wanting to get back to New Orleans, AND we finally had success in getting to Grand Cayman!  Life is so good :)